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BackgroundGene-set enrichment analysis is a useful technique to help functionally characterize large gene lists, such as the results of gene expression experiments. This technique finds functionally coherent gene-sets, such as pathways, that are statistically over-represented in a given gene list. Ideally, the number of resulting sets is smaller than the number of genes in the list, thus simplifying interpretation. However, the increasing number and redundancy of gene-sets used by many current enrichment analysis software works against this ideal.Principal FindingsTo overcome gene-set redundancy and help in the interpretation of large gene lists, we developed “Enrichment Map”, a network-based visualization method for gene-set enrichment results. Gene-sets are organized in a network, where each set is a node and edges represent gene overlap between sets. Automated network layout groups related gene-sets into network clusters, enabling the user to quickly identify the major enriched functional themes and more easily interpret the enrichment results.ConclusionsEnrichment Map is a significant advance in the interpretation of enrichment analysis. Any research project that generates a list of genes can take advantage of this visualization framework. Enrichment Map is implemented as a freely available and user friendly plug-in for the Cytoscape network visualization software (http://baderlab.org/Software/EnrichmentMap/).

Pathway enrichment analysis helps researchers gain mechanistic insight into gene lists generated from genome-scale (omics) experiments. This method identifies biological pathways that are enriched in a gene list more than would be expected by chance. We explain the procedures of pathway enrichment analysis and present a practical step-by-step guide to help interpret gene lists resulting from RNA-seq and genome-sequencing experiments. The protocol comprises three major steps: definition of a gene list from omics data, determination of statistically enriched pathways, and visualization and interpretation of the results. We describe how to use this protocol with published examples of differentially expressed genes and mutated cancer genes; however, the principles can be applied to diverse types of omics data. The protocol describes innovative visualization techniques, provides comprehensive background and troubleshooting guidelines, and uses freely available and frequently updated software, including g:Profiler, Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA), Cytoscape and EnrichmentMap. The complete protocol can be performed in ~4.5 h and is designed for use by biologists with no prior bioinformatics training.

Introduction Advancing whole-genome precision medicine requires understanding how gene expression is altered by genetic variants, especially those that are outside of protein-coding regions. We developed a computational technique that scores how strongly genetic variants alter RNA splicing, a critical step in gene expression whose disruption contributes to many diseases, including cancers and neurological disorders. A genome-wide analysis reveals tens of thousands of variants that alter splicing and are enriched with a wide range of known diseases. Our results provide insight into the genetic basis of spinal muscular atrophy, hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer and autism spectrum disorder. Methods We used machine learning to derive a computational model that takes as input DNA sequences and applies general rules to predict splicing in human tissues. Given a test variant, our model computes a score that predicts how much the variant disrupts splicing. The model was derived in such a way that it can be used to study diverse diseases and disorders, and to determine the consequences of common, rare, and even spontaneous variants. Results Our technique is able to accurately classify disease-causing variants and provides insights into the role of aberrant splicing in disease. We scored over 650,000 DNA variants and found that disease-causing variants have higher scores than common variants and even those associated with disease in genome-wide association studies. Our model predicts substantial and unexpected aberrant splicing due to variants within introns and exons, including those far from the splice site. For example, among intronic variants that are more than 30 nucleotides away from a splice site, known disease variants alter splicing nine times more often than common variants; among missense exonic disease variants, those that least impact protein function are over five times more likely to alter splicing than other variants. Autism has been associated with disrupted splicing in brain regions, so we used our method to score variants detected using whole genome sequencing data from individuals with and without autism. Genes with high scoring variants include many that have been previously linked with autism, as well as new genes with known neurodevelopmental phenotypes. Most of the high scoring variants are intronic and cannot be detected by exome analysis techniques. When we score clinical variants in spinal muscular atrophy and colorectal cancer genes, up to 94% of variants found to disrupt splicing using minigene reporters are correctly classified. Discussion In the context of precision medicine, causal support for variants that is independent of existing studies is greatly needed. Our computational model was trained to predict splicing from DNA sequence alone, without using disease annotations or population data. Consequently, its predictions are independent of and complementary to population data, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), expression-based quantitative trait loci (QTL), and functi...